By Kathy Laird
Crawford County Now contributor
When Crestline defendant Ryan Omera faced Judge Sean Leuthold in Crawford County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday, he learned immediately that if the judge had his way Omera would be headed to prison. Omera pleaded guilty on Wednesday.
He was charged with a fifth-degree felony for vandalism. He appeared in court with his attorney Tom Nicholson.
“I would love to put you in prison Mr. Omera, but at the end of the day you are not prison eligible,” Leuthold said.
Leuthold placed Omera on five years of supervised community control with a long list of stipulations.
“It angers me to no end that drunken idiots act like horse behinds.”
Noting that in a drunken stupor, Omera went about slashing tires the Judge called his behavior “idiotic and unacceptable”. The judge went on to list the names of Omera’s victims along with their individual expenses to replace or repair their tires.
“These are hard-working citizens of this town and they should not have to pay the price for your behavior, which ends today,” Leuthold said.
The judge questioned Omera about his employment, wages, and whether he was current on his child support.
“You’d better be working, I want a monthly report and you will pay every cent of these $2167.66 in damages and you’d better be current on your child support,” Leuthold said.
After explaining the conditions of Omera’s community control, Leuthold reiterated that if Omera violates probation in any way, he would go directly to prison for 12 months.
“You do not want to cross me on this one,” Leuthold said.
In other cases, Joseph Fields was placed on five years of community control after an old Suboxone strip was found in his wallet when he was being booked into the Crawford County Justice Center. He received a $5,000 fine, as well.
A second-degree felony was reduced to a fourth-degree aggravated assault charge and a plea deal was made for Kyle Gardner, 35, of Galion. The deal was stricken at the last minute when the victim in the case recanted his allegations of exactly how the event occurred.
“This is not a typical case,” Leuthold said upon sentencing Gardner to five years of community control.
He was ordered to stay away from the victim as a condition of his probation.
“It is not often that I disparage a victim, but having a lengthy record himself, I can tell you this; if you’re hanging out with him you’re most likely up to no good,” Leuthold said.
Clayton Brewington and MaryAnn Johnson appeared before Leuthold to ask that a domestic violence restraining order be lifted from Mr. Brewington. Ms. Johnson explained to the Judge that couple now has a grandchild together and will inevitably be in contact with one another at various gatherings and events. She noted that she had no fear of Mr. Brewington. Brewington’s probation officer noted that he hadn’t had any difficulties with Brewington complying with the conditions of his parole. As he congratulated them on the birth of their grandchild, he noted that while he had decided to lift the order he had some warnings for the both of them.
“I’m going to fast forward here and tell you what I’ve experienced in these kinds of cases. What starts out as amicable somehow gets off course, usually at a family event and often there’s alcohol involved. Let’s say one of you rehashes old hurts and regrets and it escalates, then we are back here. I don’t want to see that happen.”
With that he lifted the order and wished them well.